He was the longest-held American in Iranian prisons. Now Siamak Namazi, a businessman arrested in October 2015 and sentenced to a 10-year sentence in 2016 on charges of collaborating with an enemy power, has been released for a week, possibly renewable. The announcement came from the UN secretariat. As part of the same operation, Siamak’s father, 85-year-old Baquer Namazi, was allowed to leave the country and return to the United States for health reasons.
Baquer Namazi, a former UNICEF official with dual Iranian and US nationality, was himself arrested in 2016 when he returned to Iran to visit his son in prison. He also condemns, he had been released from prison due to an illness, but he had never been allowed to leave Iran.
The news of Siamak’s temporary release was confirmed by his lawyer: “Now, for the first time in six years, he is at home in Tehran with his parents”. Siamak, head of an Emirati oil group, was arrested by the Revolutionary Guards. His conviction, contested by human rights organizations, was later confirmed on appeal in 2017.
His release demonstrates how the diplomacy of Washington and Tehran, albeit under a trace, continue to negotiate. Proof of this is also the announcement by the Nournews agency, according to which billions of dollars in Iranian assets blocked by American sanctions are about to be “thawed”.